Ball studied sociology and philosophy at the universities Universities of Munich and Heidelberg (1906–07) and went to Berlin (1910) to become a theatrical producer and an actor. He was a founder of the Dadaist movement in art. A staunch pacifist, Ball he left Germany during World War I and moved to neutral Switzerland (1916). In Zürich he established Cabaret Voltaire, a central performance space for the Dada movement, of which he was a founder.

His more important works include Kritik der deutschen Intelligenz (1919; “Critique of German Intelligence”) and Die Flucht aus der Zeit (1927; “The Flight from Time”).